Following her latest out-of-this-world role in Guardians of the Galaxy, Zoe Saldana is allowed to get a little more grounded in the new Book of Life trailer. But just a little.

The Guillermo del Toro-produced epic starts out in our world, but then spills over into the land of the dead and the land of the forgotten. At the center of the tale is Manolo (Diego Luna), a young man who harbors dreams of becoming a musician.

Saldana plays Maria, the object of Manolo’s affections, and Channing Tatum rounds out the lead cast as Joaquin, Manolo’s friend and rival. Ice Cube and Christina Applegate also star. Watch the new Book of Life trailer after the jump.

Please Recommend /Film on Facebook

In theaters this Halloween will be a different sort of ghost story. The Book of Life is a film based on the images and stories about the Day of the Dead, and features a man, recently deceased, who hopes to journey back to the land of the living to be with the woman he loves. The real attraction in the film, which is directed by Jorge Gutierrez and produced by Guillermo del Toro, is the visual design. The lands beyond the living, as seen here, are just stunning to see; the colors and level of detail are almost overwhelming. Watch the Book of Life trailer below. Read More »

Michael Peña has been working steadily for over a decade, but he’s usually the guy in the supporting role, not the lead. So Cesar Chavez seems like a nice change of pace for the underrated actor, as he gets to play the title character this time around.

Directed by Y Tu Mamá También star Diego Luna, the biopic follows the life and times of the iconic civil rights leader, chronicling his farm workers movement from its early days. Peña’s End of Watch co-star America Ferrera plays his wife, Rosario Dawson portrays the activist Dolores Huerta, and John Malkovich appears as one of Chavez’ adversaries. Watch the trailer after the jump.

We all have our favorite “so bad they’re good” movies. They’re films with poorly written scripts and terrible performances, but huge entertainment value due to, or in spite of, near-total incompetence. Casa de mi Padre, Will Ferrell‘s Spanish-language comedy, was conceived and executed to be one of those films. It’s filled with totally self-aware mistakes in editing and production design. It has wooden performances and crappy dialogue. The idea was those gags, coupled with the fact that everyone is speaking Spanish, should be funny.

What Ferrell, director Matt Piedmont and writer Andrew Steele neglected to realize, though, is the reason “so bad they’re good” films usually gain that moniker is that the filmmakers crafted every moment with the best intentions… they just failed miserably. The Casa de mi Padre team is making a bad movie on purpose so those “best intentions” aren’t there. That, in turn, sucks the heart out of the film. As a result, it just lays on the screen lingering in mediocrity. And there are no “so mediocre they’re good” movies. Read More »

Michael Peña has called labor organizer Cesar Chavez his dream role, and now the actor is set to play the part in Chavez, which will be produced and directed by Diego Luna. That’s a great step up from supporting roles in films like Battle: Los Angeles, Tower Heist and The Lincoln Lawyer.

Peña will be joined by America Ferrera as Helen Chavez, and Rosario Dawson as Dolores Huerta. Variety says the film, scripted by Keir Pearson, “depicts Chavez organizing the largest non-violent protest in U.S. history to accomplish his ultimate goal of obtaining basic human rights for over 50,000 farm workers in California.”

Chavez will start shooting in Sonora, Mexico in April. Gael Garcia Bernal and John Malkovich are also among the film’s producers. This is Luna’s second film about a public figure, as his first directorial effort was the documentary J.C. Chavez, about Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez.

After the break, Jennifer Beals produces and stars in a jazz-themed indie called The Lord of Vinyl, and the supernatural YA adaptation Beautiful Creatures gets a little addition from Project X. Read More »

Last month we saw the teaser trailer for Casa de mi Padre, the Spanish-language comedy starring Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. Now, Pantelion Filmshave released a full length 2 minute trailer. Watch it now after the jump, and leave your thoughts in the comments below. Read More »

The trailer for Contraband put me to sleep. How many times have we seen an action movie where a former crook is drawn back into the life he left to save his family? That, coupled with the January release date, usually a kiss of death, had me going into the Baltasar Kormákur-directed film with expectations suitably low. As it turns out Contraband, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi, has plenty of entertaining elements. It’s noticeably flawed but those problems aren’t fatal and you get exactly what you paid for. Two hours of forgettable, forgivable entertainment. Read More »

Many months ago we saw a rough quality teaser trailer for Casa de mi Padre, the Spanish-language comedy starring Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. Now, with US distribution set via the small label Pantelion Films, we’ve got a much better quality teaser that will give you the basic setup of the movie. Check it out below. Read More »

Last year, Will Ferrell shot a Spanish-language comedy called Casa de mi Padre, with co-stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. The movie seems to be both a loving ode to and a send-up of classic Mexican telenovellas. A trailer appeared in April and was taken down not long afterward, but we haven’t heard much at all about the film since then.

Now a small label, Pantelion Films, has picked up US distribution rights to Casa de mi Padre and will have the movie in theaters on March 16, 2012. Read More »